Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha

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In this national bestseller and winner of the Booker Prize, Roddy Doyle, author of the "BarrytownTrilogy," takes us to a new level of emotional richness with the story of ten-year-old Padraic Clarke.Witty and poignant--and adored by critics and readers alike--Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha charts thetrumphs, indignities, and bewilderment of Paddy as he tries to make sense of his changing world.In Roddy Doyle s Booker Prize-winning novel Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, an Irish lad named Paddy rampages through the streets of Barrytown with a pack of like-minded hooligans, playing cowboys and Indians, etching their names in wet concrete, and setting fires. Roddy Doyle has captured the sensations and speech patterns of preadolescents with consummate skill, and managed to do so without resorting to sentimentality. Paddy Clarke and his friends are not bad boys; they re just a little bit restless. They re always taking sides, bullying each other, and secretly wishing they didn t have to. All they want is for something--anything--to happen.

Throughout the novel, Paddy teeters on the nervous verge of adolescence. In one scene, Paddy tries to make his little brother s hot water bottle explode, but gives up after stomping on it just one time: "I jumped on Sinbad s bottle. Nothing happened. I didn t do it again. Sometimes when nothing happened it was really getting ready to happen." Paddy Clarke senses that his world is about to change forever--and not necessarily for the better. When he realizes that his parents marriage is falling apart, Paddy stays up all night listening, half-believing that his vigil will ward off further fighting. It doesn t work, but it is sweet and sad that he believes it might. Paddy s logic may be fuzzy, but his heart is in the right place. --Jill Marquis